There are Christians in North Korea but congregations are typically made up of two or three people from the same family, Fox News reports. The North Korean church exists, but it has had to go deeply underground: under the Kim Jong Un regime, believers – and their families – may face the death penalty or detention if their faith is discovered.
The United Nations (UN) has warned that vast swarms of locusts are set on a “path of destruction” across Africa, affecting nations that had not seen the pest in decades. Locust controllers are concerned the pests will wipe out crops in a potentially “Biblical catastrophe,” leaving millions of people without food in some of the most vulnerable countries in the world.
Recent opinion polls unanimously demonstrate that around 90% of Palestinians reject President Trump’s peace plan, the Washington Institute reports. However, separate polls show different results on Palestinian support for a third intifada as a means by which to resist the plan.
Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah said on Wednesday that Israel was now concentrating its attacks in Syria on missile-manufacturing sites.
Israel’s new unity government, comprised of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his coalition partner Benny Gantz, has postponed Thursday’s swearing-in ceremony to Sunday.
Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell says the United States may face a prolonged economic downturn, and new unemployment numbers out Thursday morning seem to reinforce his prediction. The latest stats reveal nearly 3 million more Americans filed for jobless aid –coronavirus-related layoffs now reaching 36 million.
The U.S. Senate comfortably approved a 2-1/2-year extension of parts of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) on Thursday, two months after the divisive provisions allowing government data collection expired.
The United States has accused China of hacking American vaccine research amid a global coronavirus pandemic.
An American mission pilot flying much-needed coronavirus test kits to a remote village in Indonesia has died in a plane crash, her Christian aviation organization confirmed.
Hope was rising Thursday for an Iranian Christian father and his young son held in detention on the Hungarian-Serbian border for 17 months, after the European Union’s top court condemned Hungary’s treatment of asylum seekers. The European Court of Justice (ECJ) ruled that Budapest was obliged to reconsider their applications. The court stressed that Hungarian authorities circumvented EU law by holding migrants seeking refuge in unlawful prison-like conditions.
The U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments Monday in a pair of cases that could shape how far religious employers’ “ministerial exception” goes in protecting them from discrimination lawsuits brought by certain employees.
US President Donald Trump further hardened his rhetoric toward China on Thursday, saying he no longer wishes to speak with Xi Jinping and warning darkly he might cut ties over the rival superpower’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic.
The Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) office has opened more than 370 cases of alleged fraud in which scammers tried to sell counterfeit COVID-19 test kits, treatments, masks, and cleaning products. Since the US entered lockdown around two months ago, the HSI has cracked down on individuals and organizations it suspects of fraud and has investigated nearly 25,000 website domains, the Washington Examiner reports.
The Trump administration has signed a $138 million deal for the production of over 500 million prefilled syringes in the event a COVID-19 vaccine becomes available. Produced by innovative syringe company ApiJect, the syringes will carry an optional RFID/NFC tag to provide information on the serial number, GPS location, and date/time of each vaccine.
Terror groups Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) announced Wednesday that they would boycott an upcoming Palestinian leaders meeting about Israeli plans to annex parts of the West Bank, the Jerusalem Post reported. Palestinian officials said Tuesday that representatives from the two groups had been invited to attend the meeting planned for Saturday in Ramallah.
Police in Montenegro have used tear gas against demonstrators demanding the release of eight Serbian Orthodox Church priests. The church leaders were detained for holding a religious procession despite a ban on gatherings due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Dozens of villagers have been killed in the latest attack on Christian communities in northwestern Nigeria by suspected Fulani Muslim militants, rights investigators, told Worthy News late Wednesday. Among victims were reportedly five people who died when armed men of Fulani origin attacked Makyali village in the Kajuru Local Government Area of Kaduna state. One person was injured in Wednesday’s attack, added advocacy group Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW) in a statement.
Nearly 40% of lower-income Americans lost work as the coronavirus pandemic began its assault on the U.S. economy, according to the Federal Reserve.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu informed President Reuven Rivlin and outgoing Knesset Speaker Benny Gantz Wednesday evening that he has managed to form a government within the two weeks allocated to him.
The incoming Israeli government has “the right and the obligation” to decide if and how it wants to apply sovereignty over the West Bank, visiting US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Wednesday at the conclusion of a whirlwind visit to Jerusalem.